Background: In Yokohama, Japan Saturday (5 August) a group of Japanese pacifists, including a member of Parliament, blocked a convey of U.S. tanks for South Vietnam.

Five trailers carrying four tanks and an armoured car were stopped at an intersection in central Yokohama by pacifists staging a sit-in the street.

The tanks and the armoured car had been repaired at the U.S. Army supply depot at nearby Sagamihara. The pacifist group was protesting against the use of the supply depot for Vietnam war operations which they say is contrary to the terms of the treaty under which the U.S. has military facilities in Japan.

The pacifists stopped the convoy on a technical point, claiming the trucks were too heavy to cross a bridge near the pier. Also the pacifists claimed the drivers did not have the required permits from the Yokohama municipal authorities to carry war material.

Japanese police were called to the scene but could do nothing since municipal regulations were involved and the drivers refused to move the trailers until they received permission to drive to the pier.

The convey was still halted on Sunday (6 August) because the mayor of Yokohama supported the pacifists by refusing to permit the trucks to cross the bridge to the pier unless it was reinforced.

Sunday was the twenty-seventh anniversary of the detonation of the first atom bomb over Hiroshima and pubic feelings made it difficult for Japanese officials to step in to resolve the dispute.